Daniel J. Hogan's Blog

Hundreds of spots in this apartment to sleep in and she chooses a small shoe box.

It’s Friday, it’s past noon UK time, it’s the new episode of FREAKANGELS, free to air.

(Automatically crossposted from warrenellis.com. Feel free to comment here or at my internet church at Whitechapel. If anything in this post looks weird, it's because LJ is run on steampipes and rubber bands -- please click through to the main site.)

• Yes, at some point I’ll get around to mentioning the GI JOE animation I scripted earlier in the year.But today I have plane-flu or summat. #
• Listening to “Albert Camus” by Titus Andronicus: two minutes in, this is a soundtrack to invading a country as an act of romance. #

(Automatically crossposted from warrenellis.com. Feel free to comment here or at my internet church at Whitechapel. If anything in this post looks weird, it's because LJ is run on steampipes and rubber bands -- please click through to the main site.)

Sure that dance sequence with actress Jennifer Beals at the end of Flashdance is awesome, but somehow it seems even more inspiring when a Bob Fett toy shows off the same dance moves. Too bad his jetpack gets in the way of his dance scholarship! Check out this fantastic stop-motion video from Patrick Boivin.

Sleestack Velvet Painting by Velezquez of Tijuana
from Velvetpaintings.com

1. The flaming clowns from yesterday were dispatched through a number of clever devices built with skateboards, model rockets, roofing tar, marbles, and the old baby monitor. Once that was all taken care of, I managed another 3000 words to finish up this chapter, leaving only the wrap-up to go. There are a lot of loose ends to deal with in this book, but the fighting is done. Call it another 3-5K and I should have a third draft.

2. Ever repeat a word so much it starts to lose its meaning? Writing a book is like that, only with 90,000 words.

3. I need a little help from the LJ mind. In addition to the novel, I also told my German editor I'd try to write an introduction for my collection. The trouble is, I've got no idea what approach to take with this. So I thought I'd ask all of you. What sort of things do you like to see in the opening pages of a collection or anthology? What approaches bore you to tears? What special insights would you want into either the stories or the author?

4. In the first chapter of the latest Simon Green book, our hero shoots several demons with a gun that fires projectiles made of frozen holy water. It's a brilliant idea ... or rather, it would be, if I hadn't seen the "ice bullet" myth so conclusively busted on an episode of Mythbusters. Maybe this is supposed to be a magic gun, I don't know. But I think Mythbusters should be required viewing for would-be authors.

Alternately there is this

Friday's Girly comic is up. (even though it's still Thursday)

I am posting this because I just know something will go wrong with the feed!

Aside from that, uhhh, hope everyone's doing okay! I plan to start posting some comics to the journal soon. I have a few ideas for some; it's just a matter of me not being lazy.

One of the rubrics for determining if a society is civilized is its art. From peculiaire, hungerf9, and skyfire1228:

The Big Ask or: Edinburgh is Expensive.

As many of you may know, I'm taking a little show that I wrote to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe this August. We had great reviews in our first run at the Cincy Fringe, and now we're on our way to performing in the largest arts festival in the world: We will perform in Edinburgh from August 2-25, taking only the 13th off in an attempt to preserve our sanity.



We will be one of nearly 3,000 shows competing for audiences and attention. It's an incredible opportunity both for myself and the company; for two of our actors, this will be their first time out of the country. Period. They haven't even been to Canada.

But it's also incredibly expensive. Our actors are all providing their own transportation to the festival, but as a company, we (this is the editorial we, buy the way) are paying for our venue rental, housing, and all advertising costs. This would be pricey in the best of times, but with the weakness of the dollar, well...

These costs come to about $15,000.

We're expecting to make maybe $3,000 in ticket sales.

But! The Know Theatre of Cincinnati, where I am resident designer for most of the year, has generously agreed to act as co-producer, offering us the umbrella of their 501(c)3 status to allow us to accept tax deductible donations.

We've already received an amazing $5,000 contribution from some wonderful supporters in Cincinnati. Now if we could just get 200 people to donate 25 bucks each, we would be pretty much set.

So now, I pose this question to you: Do you pay taxes? Would you like to pay less in taxes? If so, please consider heading over to the convenient web donation page for the Know to throw a couple of bucks in the hat via credit card or bank transfer. If you do, be sure to write "Hunger Warrior Theatre - Anna the Slut" in the comment box so that the Know can tell it's meant for us.

Not only will you be helping a group of wide eyed young actors realize a late summer's dream, you'll be giving my career a big boost.

And you will also be ensuring that I don't have to eat Ramen for the rest of the year.

I understand the uncertainty and tightness of these economic times, so I certainly don't want to imply any sort of obligation. Any and all help, whether one dollar, twenty dollars, or simply emotional and moral support, is appreciated.

Thanks. We now return to our irregularly scheduled LJ.

I like the fat pony